


open up your heart

by invaderssayni



Series: it's times like these [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions
Genre: (sort of? is there an official canon age for BW?), Aged-Up Character(s), Artistic Liberties, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, M/M, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 06:02:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5994139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invaderssayni/pseuds/invaderssayni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cheren holds up the takeout box full of cheesecake. “I am celebrating.”<br/>Alder looks at him, raising an eyebrow. “That’s not a celebration, kid, it’s a cry for help.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	open up your heart

Cheren sighs, poking morosely at the large slice of chocolate cheesecake. It’s November twenty-first — his eighteenth birthday — and he’s sitting alone on the cliff outside Twist Mountain while all his friends are off Arceus-knows-where. There’s Cleo, of course, but he doesn’t think serperiors are supposed to have chocolate?

(“Are you?” he asks, offering her the plastic fork, but she shakes her head. “No, I didn’t think so.”)

He thinks about calling his parents, then reconsiders. He’s not quite that desperate for company. Well, okay, he kind of is, but he doesn’t want them to know he’s spending his birthday alone like a complete loser.

“Being an adult sucks,” he whines to Cleo, flopping over and resting his head on her body. She hisses in agreement, patting his head with one of her vines.

“Hey, are you okay?” a pleasantly deep voice asks, and Cheren swears. “Just trying to be friendly,” the voice protests.

He sits back up, shaking his head. “It wasn’t because of you.” He looks up at the man — of course Alder of all people would show up while he’s moping on the side of a cliff — and resists the urge to fling himself off the edge. Cleo would probably catch him anyway. “See, it’s my birthday today.”

The older man sits next to him. “Which begs the question, why are you out here by yourself when you should be celebrating?”

Cheren holds up the takeout box full of cheesecake. “I am celebrating.”

Alder looks at him, raising an eyebrow. “That’s not a celebration, kid, it’s a cry for help.”

He makes a noncommittal noise. He can’t argue, really. “Well, Touko’s probably already at Victory Road by now, and Touya’ll be off with his Plasma boyfriend, and Arceus only knows where Bianca is, so it’s me and Cleo and this box of cheesecake. And apparently you as well,” he adds, almost as an afterthought.

“Oh, thanks. I see how it is.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he says hastily. “I don’t know, it’s my eighteenth birthday and I’m sitting on a mountain, and I understand that that’s part of the journey, I really do. But...”

“But no one wants to be alone on their birthday,” Alder finishes, nodding sympathetically. 

“Well... yeah. And it’s funny, in an awful sort of way, because I put off my journey for a year so I wouldn’t have to go alone, but here we are.” He runs a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t... I’m sure you have more important things to do than listen to me complain.”

“Nonsense,” Alder says cheerfully, “and even if I did, no one should be alone on their birthday.”

Cheren raises an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Really, you don’t have to sit here just because you feel sorry for me. I promise not to throw myself off this cliff when you leave.”

“Right, well...” The older man sighs and closes his eyes. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but since you need a reason, I just came from visiting my first pokemon at Celestial Tower. I meant to do it last week, but things kept coming up.”

Cheren winces. “Sorry.”

“It is what it is,” Alder replies with a shrug, “but I don’t particularly want to be alone either.”

Cheren looks at Alder for a moment, then hesitantly holds out the takeout box. “Cheesecake?”

Alder frowns for a moment, then proposes a counter-offer “How about you let me buy you dinner?”

Cheren blinks. “Why?”

“Because I haven’t eaten yet today, and it looks like you’ve been picking at that cheesecake more than anything else.” He can’t argue with that either. “Anyway, it’s getting dark. There’s no way you’re getting through that mountain tonight.”

“I think I have a can of red tauros somewhere in my bag, I might be able to make it to Icirrus,” he protests, more because he feels obligated to than out of any actual desire to turn Alder down.

“You know, there’s a twenty-four hour diner in Mistralton that makes these waffles topped with everything you can think of. Call it a birthday present?” 

He bites his lip, then offers, “I’ll go to dinner, but I’m paying my own bill.”

“What kind of person would I be if I let you pay on your birthday?” he asks, feigning offence. 

“I’m not going to win this argument, am I,” Cheren says flatly.

“What can I say, I’m very persuasive,” he teases, before pushing himself off the side of the cliff.

“Alder!” Cheren does NOT scream. He totally doesn’t. Not even a little. 

He hears a warm chuckle coming from below, and looks down to see the man on his feet, laughing, without a scratch on him. “You ass!”

“Aw, were you worried about me?”

“S- shut up! You jumped off a cliff, what was I supposed to think?”

“It’s not that far,” Alder assures him. “Come on, jump down. You’ll be fine.”

Cheren’s eyes widen and he scoots backwards. “Or, you know, I could NOT do that.”

“I’ll catch you,” Alder offers, raising his arms. “I won’t let you get hurt, I promise.” 

Cheren dithers for a while, but eventually returns Cleo to her pokeball and scoots back up to the edge. “Just... jump?”

“You saw how I did it. The hills outside Floccesy are really better for this, but there’s less chance of you landing on a wild purrloin out here.”

Cheren takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and pushes away from the side of the cliff. He doesn’t fall as long as he expected before he hits something solid and warm, feels a pair of strong arms wrap around him, and clings tightly to the man, burying his face in his shoulder. “Oh my god, oh my god, holy fuck, oh my god,” he babbles into Alder’s poncho.

“You’re alright, I’ve got you,” Alder says reassuringly. “See, that wasn’t bad.”

The fall? Not really. The fact that Cheren now feels like he’s swallowed a horde of butterfree, on the other hand... “Give me a minute,” he says faintly. 

It takes him a while to stop shaking, by which time he realises two things. One, that he isn’t actually touching the ground, and two, he feels oddly warm for being outside, at sunset, in November. 

“Um...Alder?” he asks hesitantly.

“Yes?” Alder murmurs into Cheren’s sweater. 

He doesn’t entirely manage to suppress a shiver at that, which surprises him. That can’t be normal, can it? Maybe he’s ill. He has been sitting outside for hours, after all…

“Were you planning on putting me down anytime soon?” is what Cheren finally settles on, making a mental note to call Touko later.

“You sure? I could always carry you back to Mistralton,” he jokes, lowering him to the ground.

“I’m alright, really.” And if Alder notices that he stumbles slightly, he’s nice enough not to mention it. “Now, I was promised waffles?”

“Of course.” He gives an exaggerated bow and offers his arm. “Shall we?”

Cheren snickers, but links arms with the man. “Such a gentleman you are.” And a very warm one at that. Maybe he should have made Alder carry him back, if only so he could leech off the older man’s body heat. “Lead the way.”

**Author's Note:**

> I would apologise for this, but that would imply I was actually sorry, and I'm not.
> 
> Happy early Valentine's Day, oldsoul fandom! I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to get the rest of this series finished and posted, but I'm working on it. :]
> 
> Title from Cameo Lover by Kimbra.


End file.
